Allan Carlson has been on the quest to answer the question “How can we protect children in our time?” He has researched in all the different disciplines: sociology, psychology, medicine, child development, and history.

To answer this question, he wrote “What Children Really Need- Another Way to Look at Children’s Rights,” in which he outlines ten articles that state what all children should have the right to. Here are the first two rights children deserve.

1. Each child has the right to a mother.

Though there are many arguments that the differences between genders are insignificant, only women are able to carry a fetus to birth. “Only women can develop the unique hormonal bonds between mother and child mediated by that amazing organ, the placenta… only women can provide that fountain of nurture, giving human babies exactly the nutrition they need when they need it: namely, breast milk.”

Mothers who are devoted and available have children who are less lonely, have less depression, less anxiety, higher self-esteem and more resiliency. The world sees women mainly as an economic value, though, as more women are going to work outside of the home.

We should all “treat motherhood as the most important of vocations… to ensure that the mother-child bond is given priority over short-term economic needs.”

2. Each child has the right to a father.

Fathers “are necessary to the healthy growth of children… A father’s involvement in a child’s life significantly influences three outcomes: economic and educational attainment and avoidance of delinquency.” Fathers are not seen as a priority though as governments provide incentives for out-of-wedlock births, the work environment often pulls fathers away from their families physically and psychologically, and the media portrays fathers as fools.